January 18, 2002

We spoke to Pratap Chaterjee in Mazar e Sharif about the situation on the ground there, how Afghans feel about the US and the need for aid.

Powell in India

Secretary of State Colin Powell says he is very encouraged that war can be averted between India and Pakistan after his latest visit to the region en route to Tokyo for a donors meet on devastated Afghanistan. For the first time since the crisis erupted between the two nuclear rivals, India raised the possibility of a return to its relationship with Pakistan prior to the December 13 attack on the Indian parliament. But the situation on the border where both countries have massed their armies remains tense. More from Sputnik Kilambi in the Indian capital.

Violence in Northern Ireland

Tens of thousands of people across Northern Ireland have stopped work today in protest of continuing sectarian violence. Businesses, public services and schools have come to a standstill as workers attend protest rallies organized by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. In the wake of the sectarian murder of a 20-year-old Catholic postal worker last Saturday, there have been a series of death threats against his colleagues and teachers in Catholic schools. After months of violence and threats at Holy Cross Catholic elementary school in Belfast, police at schools across Northern Ireland have been put on high alert once again. Fintan O’Toole is a columnist for the Irish Times who has been following the conflict in Northern Ireland for the last thirty years. He spoke to correspondent Miranda Kennedy in Dublin.

Ford Lay-offs

Last Friday the Ford Motor Company announced that it would close five of it’s factories and cut 35,000 manufacturing jobs world wide, over the next several years to increase profits in a struggling economy. At the truck assembly plant in Edison, New Jersey that means the loss of employment for 16,000 workers and a community that will be forever changed. Scott Gurion reports from Edison.